CSI: Idaho

From ChefJudith1.

French Fry Diary 73: McCormick & Schmick’s, Atlantic City

McCormick & Schmick’s is a relatively upscale seafood restaurant that has popped up in my area in the last decade or so. There’s even one in Cherry Hill now, but this review is of the one in Harrahs in Atlantic City.

We visited the casino the night before Christmas Eve when the hours most of the restaurants were open severely limited our choice as to where to eat. It’s not just the holidays, most of the AC casinos have screwed up hours. I have personally never found anything open when I needed it. I just think this is odd for a city and a business that supposedly runs 24/7. I guess it just includes everything but food.

Anyway we ended up at McCormick & Schmick’s, not a great place for this catastrophically picky eater as the only seafood I like are fried scallops. I have to admit this really wasn’t a problem as I’ve found over the years that seafood restaurants frequently have the best steak and chicken – and such was the case here as well. A delicious filet mignon was served up to perfection. And with it, I got, you guessed it, French fries.

These natural cut, slightly-larger-than-regular cuts came Belgian style in a paper cone, and were very hot. Like there had to be cooling time very hot. The outsides are extra crispy as if they were shock-fried twice rather than just once and inside they are delicious soft and hot. Definitely A plus on these fries. If I had to have a complaint about McCormick & Schmick’s fries, it would be how long we waited for them in a barely busy restaurant – nearly forty-five minutes! Did they go to Idaho for them?

Space Chips

Twenty-Five Years of New York Fries

A great article by Thomas Hagey, check it out here.

French Fry Diary 72: Sneaky Airport Fries

A postscript to my recent trip on the Disney Cruise, I came across these ‘fries’ at the Orlando airport waiting for the flight home. I saw The Bride approaching with this cup adorned with fries and got excited and hungry.

But no, base treachery, as Mighty Thor might say, these weren’t fries but pretzel nuggets. What a cruel trick!

Buffalo Chicken Cheese Fries

Another entry from This Is Why You’re Fat, these are Buffalo Chicken Cheese Fries.

Specifically, these are French fries topped with buffalo chicken pieces covered in hefeweizen beer cheese sauce all topped with crumbled blue cheese and scallions.

What, no bacon?

Wow, what will they think of next?

French Fry Diary 71: Topsider Buffet, Disney Magic

The Topsider Buffet is the place for breakfast on board the Disney Magic, a buffet arrangement that has everything you could possibly want – fruits, bagels, toasts, breads, pastries, juices, pancakes and waffles, a cereal bar, an omelet station, and yes, even a potato product. Sadly it was not a good potato product.

Much like the disappointment at Parrot Cay, the hash browns were of the same variety. Of course there’s not as much disappointment this time as Topsider’s is a buffet and Parrot Cay a fancy restaurant, but still… what do I have to do to get good breakfast potatoes on board this ship?

Apparently the answer to that question is to simply wait a day. Day four brought with it roasted potatoes for breakfast at Topsider’s. More dinner style than breakfast style, these stir-fry red potato wedges with onion, parsley and other extras mixed in with a subtle but yummy sauce made breakfast so much more worthwhile than previously. Day five gave us very thick slices of red potatoes in the same configuration. Tasty, but I would have to say the wedge shape worked much better. So they did redeem themselves in the breakfast potato arena, eventually.

More Potato Latkes for Chanukah

Potato Latkes from Judy Zeidler, author of “The Gourmet Jewish Cookbook”

Ingredients:

4 Potatoes, peeled
1 lg Onion, grated
1 tb Lemon juice
4 Eggs
3 tb Flour
1 t Salt
Pepper
Oil or shortening for frying

Grate potatoes fine.
Add all ingredients (except fat).
Mix.
Heat 1" deep oil or shortening until it is almost smoking.
Drop batter by the tablespoonful and flatten with the back of a spoon.
Cook 3 - 5 min on a side until golden.
Drain on paper towels and serve with sour cream or applesauce.
These may be frozen: in this case, bake them on shiny baking sheets at 450 until crisp, about 5 min.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 47 Calories; 1g Fat (11.4% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 9g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 21mg Cholesterol; 66mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch) ; 0 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 0 Fat.

Yield: 36 servings

French Fry Diary 70: Pluto’s Dog House, Disney Magic

On the Disney Cruise ship the Magic, Pluto’s Dog House is a counter service fast fast food place up on the top deck where the pools and lounge chairs are. It’s designed for quick and easy, and for our purposes here, for French fries.

These fries are typical of Disney, specifically the parks – natural regular cuts, and suitably tasty hot and crispy and not soggy or greasy.

The only thing that bothered me is that the counterperson pulled them out of nowhere. It was like poof and here was a plate of fries, and then he added the hot dog that I saw where that was cooked. Not that the mystery origin of the fries affected their taste or goodness, it was just a bit curious.

Just for the record, these are also the same fries one would get at Pinocchio’s Pizzeria that is situated on the other side of the pool. I get why Pluto would have a dog house, but I am still pondering the whys and wherefores that Pinocchio would have a pizzeria. Hmmm… I guess it’s like any number of appliances on “The Flintstones” would say, ”It’s a living.” I guess I thought that being a real boy/former puppet might pay better...

French Fry Diary 69: Parrot Cay, Disney Magic

Parrot Cay is the Disney Cruise’s Caribbean themed restaurant, very festive island flavor, decorated with parrots everywhere and even the sounds of parrots and other tropical birds. Island décor, music and even menu items, this is one of my favorite restaurants on board.

For breakfast, however, this was a disappointment. The same rectangles of processed hash brown that you can buy at your local Shop-Rite at ten for three bucks is what you get, and it’s not even good. These were crispy to a crunchy texture with barely any potato flavor left. It was a good thing the syrup overflow from my pancakes was there or they’d have no taste. Heck, nothing against this type of hash brown, but I could make it better in my microwave, oven or toaster myself. Epic fail. Except for the bacon of course, which was fabulous. But this is French Fry Diary, not Bacon Diary...

When I came for dinner later that day I had some great jerked chicken as an appetizer and grilled beef tenderloins for dinner. Rather than French fries (which is where you thought I was going, didn’t you?) as a side I got the twice-baked potato, which in hindsight was a great idea. Not the usual, which impressed the wait staff who had already tagged me as a catastrophically picky eater, but it was still quite good. The only other night we ate there I also had mashed potatoes, so oh well, we’ll have to try the fries at Parrot Cay another time.